Review of legal philosophical approach to digital copyright management and its implications for knowledge degeneration in Africa

Traditional copyright legislation and legal principles did not make provisions for the management of digital copyright and its possible infringements. The drafters of copyright legislation and policy makers did not foresee the possible outbreak of copyright infringement in the digital age. The evolution in digital technologies has enormous impact on the traditional perspectives of copyright system. As the need to address the challenges confronting digital copyright system increased, the various legal-philosophical approaches were developed by legal philosophers, policy makers and competent courts. These approaches can have specific implications for knowledge development in Africa. This paper reviews, from the point of view of legal philosophers and decisions of the relevant courts, the different perspectives of the digital copyright management. It also examines the extent these approaches impact on the knowledge development in Africa. [Africa is used as a single unit in this paper but this should not be construed as African homogeneity. Rather the views advanced in this paper are used to address the common challenges facing many communities in Africa].